Author Archives: bookdwarf

Movies Based on Books

I’m reading this article in the New York Times about Noah Baumbach’s forthcoming film Margot at the Wedding when I see this bit:

Two of his next projects, as it happens, are based on existing texts. He is co-writer of Mr. Anderson’s next film, an animated version of Roald Dahl’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” and he has been hired to write an adaptation of “The Emperor’s Children,” Claire Messud’s novel set among the floundering younger generation of New York literati, for Ron Howard to direct.

Excuse me? It’s not the Roald Dahl bit I question–they’re going to continue to make lame movies from his wonderful books for eons. It’s the Claire Messud bit. Directed by Ron Howard? Ugh. I thought the book good, but not as good as the critics claimed. I think that had to do with it coming out in a literary fiction vacuum. But Ron Howard? I’m expecting a mediocre rendition at best.

How crappy does Beowulf look? Maybe it will look better on the big screen?
And not to sound like a snot, but why are they adapting Julie & Julia for a movie? And why is Meryl Streep playing Julia Child? Yes, she is one of the finest actresses working today, but Julia Child? I think Julie Powell’s story worked as a blog, but not as well as a book. I found myself tired by the end. How is Nora Ephron going to work this into some cute love story anyway?

I shouldn’t complain. Several good books are being adapted into what look like great movies: No Country for Old Men (anyone see this yet?), Love in the Time of Cholera, and Atonement (on the fence about this one). Even the previews for The Golden Compass look pretty good. Anything y’all are excited about?

Country Living

Who’s going to see the Coen Brother’s No Country for Old Men? The New York Times review just want make me want to see it even more. I still haven’t read the book either. After being kicked in the head by The Road, I’m wary. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it one of the best books I read last year, so powerful. I just felt like I had to recover after reading it.

Customer Service

One of the things my store prides itself on is our high level of customer service. This means that if you come into my store with only one or two pieces of information about a book, we’ll try our hardest to figure out the answer. Every now and then, we get some rather silly requests, such as the person a few holidays ago who called on Christmas Eve and asked in a strange, high voice for books on “Monkeys? Monkeys doing things like humans”—turns out he wanted photos of monkeys having sex. I had a friend who worked at a Borders in Braintree who said that they had a customer say they knew the title, but not the author and could they help them? “The title is Dante’s Inferno.”

When the floor staff can’t figure it out, they usually call me to play what we call Stump the Bookseller. Today it was a book that had been on our front nonfiction table within the last few months, subject is something like Africa and economic development, and was reviewed in the Economist. Well, then. I threw out a few suggestions, none correct. Hung up, went back to work for a few minutes, then it came to me. Of course the customer had already gone by then, but I raced down to the floor just in case. I love the challenge of figuring these things out, like a test of my memory.
Oh, the book I think they were looking for was The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier.

It Takes a Blogger…

Finally, a review of Shalom Auslander’s book Foreskin’s Lament that looks past the hilarity to the angst religion causes. So many reviewers make this memoir out like it’s a shallow dig at Orthodox Judaism—it’s not. It’s a caustic memoir written by someone who truly feels conflicted. Mark Sarvas (I swear I’m not mentioning this because he’s a fellow blogger. I read the review and didn’t notice who had written it until the end). Mark and I don’t always see eye to eye on books, but more often than not, our tastes overlap. I’m glad someone out there is truly representing this book.

Genre Reading

I hear all kinds of stuff about genre books. On one side, they’re ghetto-ized, they’re neglected; on the other, they’re not serious, they’re not literature. I’m going to be a coward and ignore the debate. There are certain subjects I tend to avoid (paranormal romance, anything by Ann Coulter, etc), but I still consider myself an open minded reader. I do love reading a good sci-fi/fantasy. This week I’ve been lucky enough to pick up two excellent sci-fi fantasy books.

Our kids buyer Kari has mentioned her love for Robin McKinley repeatedly. She seems to be a a staff favorite. Recommends (those hand written shelf talkers you see in stores) have been written for Beauty, Blue Sword, Deerskin, and most recently Sunshine. I finally cracked under the pressure of so many fans and read Sunshine. I loved it. Rae “Sunshine” Seddon stars as a baker at her family’s cafe, comfortably ensconced in her life until one day she is abruptly kidnapped by vampires. Instead of finishing her off quickly, she finds herself chained to a wall next to another vampire, himself chained up. When he doesn’t eat her, she calls upon some long forgotten magic that helps them both escape. Now they’re connected and must join together again to fight off the malevolent forces once again. People might compare it to Buffy, but I think that’s slightly off. Sunshine isn’t a valley girl (I know Buffy wasn’t a valley girl. I faithfully watched the series. She was presented as a girl who could kick some ass but really wanted to shop, etc). She’s really more normal than Buffy. Anyway, I read feverishly read this book and hope that McKinley writes a follow up.

While in the middle of reading Sunshine, a copy of Naomi Novik’s latest in the Temeraire series, Empire of Ivory, arrived on my desk.  The Napoleonic wars plus dragons, how can you go wrong? I’m only half way through, but so far so good. It’s as gripping as the last three.

Tuesday Afternoon Reflections

Do you ever think to yourself, I love where I live and I love where I work? I just got back to my office on this sunny, Fall day in Cambridge. Where else could you be buying onions and hot peppers at the farmers market on the Harvard campus in front of the Science Center and fall into a conversation with one of the farmers and another customer about Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire? Afterwards I strolled back to my office through the orange and yellow leaves on this sunny, Fall day to my office.

Fast Monday Links

  • I’m proud to present a site that focuses on reading locally–Meeting House: A Journal of New England Fiction. This week they present an interview with Ron Currie, Jr., the author of God is Dead, the story about God returning to Earth in the form of a Dinka woman. It’s been on my TBR pile for a while now. I might have to move it to the top.
  • For those who love memoirs, read Judith Jones’s The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food. It’s truly wonderful. Knopf has posted an interview with Jones for your enjoyment. As you can see from the schedule, she’ll be reading at my store on November 13th. I’m quite excited to meet her.
  • I wish Dumbledore had Troy McClure’s sexual proclivities (you may remember him from some of the funniest episodes of the Simpsons). It would be so much more interesting. I find myself not really caring.

Friday Miscellany

  • Lucky Ed interviews Oliver Sacks in the latest Time Out New York.

    He smiles and selects a track on his stereo to offer an example, finding a cover of “Shooby Dooin’ ” performed by Woody Geist, a patient who has suffered from Alzheimer’s for decades but who sings with the polish of a suave ballroom crooner. “You can have profoundly demented people, like Woody here, who are still able to sing beautifully,” Sacks says. “But if you asked him if he knew this particular song, he might not recognize the title or the question or be able to answer.”

  • Ed also has just posted his most recent spate of interviews. It’s an impressive list including James Lipton, Naomi Wolf, and Steven Pinker.
  • The LA Times loves Benjamin Percy’s Refresh, Refresh as much as I do. It’s the best book you haven’t heard of, one of my favorite books this year.
  • Local boy makes good. Scott McLemee interviews Joshua Glenn, co-author of Taking Things Seriously. Glenn writes for the Boston Globe‘s Ideas section, one of the sections that still makes it worth subscribing to.
  • The National Book Foundation has interviews with all of the NBA Award Finalists up on their website. They obviously sent out the same email to all of the fiction finalists, but their answers are pretty interesting.
  • Mark Sarvas interviews via email Jane Gardam, author of the gem Old Filth as well as numerous other books.
  • Critical Mass has posted John Freeman’s longish interview with John Updike. I like his dig at Roth when asked why he writes reviews: “I am too much of a professional to want to be locked in entirely with one novel after another. Roth does it that way, Styron did it. I like the mix.” I have a confession to make: I’ve never read any of Updike’s novels.
  • Cat Fight. This regards a review of Tom Perrotta’s most recent novel The Abstinence Teacher, which I happened to have read a weekend or two ago. This was my first foray into Perrotta’s work. He’s local (lives in Belmont, which is two towns over) and a popular author with my co-workers. I found this book to be gripping in parts but oddly flat at the end.
  • The Millions posts the Top Ten Most Anticipated Books.

TGIF

It’s been a long week. Working on the Holiiday Hundred (books that my store features for the holidays, usually what we consider the best books of the year) and staying up late to watch the Red Sox. I find that I’m too anxious to watch the games directly so I’ll read while in front of the television. Of course, this ends up with some really half ass reading.

I’ve hit a reading dead zone anyway. I’ve got piles and shelves of books, but none are screaming out to me “read me!” right now. Perhaps I need to read some non-fiction. I’ve got Steven Johnson’s Ghost Map about the cholera outbreak in 1854 and Mary Beard’s Roman Triumph. Aside from having a gorgeous cover, Beard’s book will fulfill my nerdy need to keep up with classics. Is anyone out there reading anything good?